The 1394 Trade Association, an international organization devoted to promoting the technology known to Mac users as FireWire, has created a new standards development committee, the Network Working Group. The committee will explore “large, expanded and home networking applications” using the 1394 multimedia standard. The group will also address issues involving interoperation with legacy networks, including Ethernet-based systems.
The group will be chaired by Michael Johas Teener, who originated the FireWire Standard in the 1980s while at Apple. Vice Chairs are Scott Fierstein of Microsoft and Steven Harris of BridgeCo.
“The formation of this group reflects the growth of 1394 from its current role in consumer product applications and entertainment clusters to a broader application in home, legacy and large networks,” Teener said in announcing the Network Working Group. “We will review the use of IP (Internet Protocol) over 1394, convergence with other networking technologies, and expanded applications that are now enabled by the arrival of the 1394b version of the standard.”
He added that the group would focus on three initial projects: the implementation of IP over FireWire; the co-existence of FireWire with Ethernet; and co-existence with 1394.1, the bridging specification.